History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy

	History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network
Memorabilia & Ephemera

1858 Atlantic Cable Album
In the period of the 1820s through the 1860s many people kept albums of autographs, drawings, and personal notes. The albums had blank pages of white and colored paper, with an illustrated title page and other illustrations interspersed throughout the volume. The covers of these books were often fine hand bindings in embossed, gold, or blind stamped leather and cloth. According to the American Antiquarian Society, which has an extensive collection of these 19th century albums, it is not known how they were created and marketed - it is quite possible that they were made to order or in small batches as souvenirs or for holiday gift giving. No two albums are identical, although there are many instances of similarities in page blocks, illustrations, or bindings.
The album shown here is a souvenir of the 1858 Atlantic Cable laying, owned by Miss Julia Smith of North Granville, New York, a town on the Hudson River north of Albany. The binding is black morocco leather; the cover is tooled, and gold-stamped "Atlantic Cable Album" with a cable design border. A 1/8" thick slice of the 1858 cable, with the word "Charm" above it, is inset into the cover. The back cover and spine are also tooled and gold stamped. To accommodate the cable sample, the front board is over twice as thick as the rear board.

Front Cover	Spine and Fore-edge		Back Cover
Click on each image for a larger view. Click here for a close-up showing the cable specimen mounted in the album cover, here for a closeup of the title on the spine, and here for a closeup showing the thicker front board.
The title page lithograph is marked "Lith. of A. Brett, Phila."		The album was created by John C. Riker of 315 Broadway, New-York, whose name appears on the title page. Riker was first listed in New York directories in 1827, and produced albums of this general style for many years. Click here for additional information on John C. Riker.
The label pasted inside the front cover reads: Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1858, by EUGENE ELY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New-York.

According to the label, the publisher was Eugene Ely, of Harper's Building, 335 Pearl Street, New York. The label also notes: "This Specimen of the Atlantic Cable guaranteed by the Publisher to be genuine. Patent applied for."
The album measures 7 3/4" high by 6 1/4" wide and contains 114 pages, of which six leaves (including the frontispiece) are tissue-guarded chromolithographs of floral subjects, 20 pages are colored stock, and 82 pages are plain white paper. The page edges are gilt. Ten of the pages have often lengthy inscriptions to the book's owner, the first and earliest being dated March 24 1860. Two of the inscriptions, one occupying two pages and the other a full page, mention the cable laying in their text. Most of the others are poetry of a Victorian sentiment, with one being just a brief and rather cryptic inscription from the owner's brother. Images and transcribed text of the inscriptions are reproduced below. Some of the background material here is derived from a recent acquisition note on the American Antiquarian Society website.
The Inscriptions

To Miss Julia Smith An album among the Romans was a white table upon which records were made. Among us an album is a book in which friends insert for each other some memorial of enduring regard and attachment. Where then you request me to dedicate this volume I would do so by simply combining the "Old Roman" and the modern definitions. These pages are now pure and white. Let only impressions of pure unsullied sincere truth be made thereupon. You open now these pages for such inscriptions. Let not the Flatterer there soil a single page. May no daydreamer or friend of sunshine only find a place. If these pages should be turned when the sun of prosperity may be overcast with clouds of adversity then may you at least find sunshine here. But yours is called an "Atlantic Telegraph Album". That was a noble deed that united two continents in electromagnetic bonds. Those were noble sentiments first transmitted over that sea-covered path. But there is another telegraph which unites not two continents but two worlds Earth and Heaven. Let your heart there be this Album. More pure and white than the Roman table. "Whiter than the snow". Then may the heavenly telegraph of prayer bring you many messages from your best friend above. J. H. Pratt North Granville March 24 1860
Julia, you ask a line from me, Our thought on memory's page, I fain would give of joy to thee, And peace from youth till age. Yet softer memories steal around The tear enbalmed spot Than e'er on earth have yet been found With joy where grief is not. And on the future coursing tide, If dark thy lot should be Remember, after storm there comes The glorious sunlight free. And whether light or whether dark The tide will soon flow o'er When we on softer wings may glide And sorrow comes no more. Toujours votre ami, E.L. Keufell N. Granville Aug 26th / 60

To Julia, Sister mine - the only one God has given; When our earthly course is run, When our life-work here is done, May we rest with Christ at home, Home in Heaven. Mary Smith - N. Granville, Dec 11th 1860.		To My Sister "Ere triflers half their wish obtain The toiling pleasure sickens into pain." Orson Smith
To Julia Thine be the love - refined from sense, - That seeks its object in the skies, Draws all its warmth and brightness thence, Its comfort, confidence, and joys; And be thy best affections given, To Him, who thee lov'd first, in heav'n. Thine be the refuge, - ever found By those who seek in faith and pray'r - From all the trials that abound Throughout this wilderness of care The faithfulness of Him, whose love Storms cannot quench, or death remove. And when thy master calls thee, thine, Thine be a crown of endless joy, Where heaven's eternal river shines, Beneath a bright and cloudless sky, Those realms, how beautiful and fair; Dear friend! a blissful meeting there. Your friend North Granville May 8th 1864 Amy F. Robbins.
To Julia You've just begun the journey of life All bright with flowers, all void of strife And may no thorns, your path assail Trust where your friends, can never fail. The path is plain, 'Tis wisdom's way Look upward to the fountain, "Light," Your pathway will be always bright 'Twill lead you on in truth and love Till life shall end in bliss above. Sarah H. Seamans Middletown Nov 12th 60
There is one leaf reserved for me From all thy sweet memorials free, And here these simple lines will tell The feelings thou might guess so well. For could I thus within thy mind One little vacant corner find, Where no impression yet is seen, Where no memorial yet hath been Ah! it should be my sweetest care To write my name forever there. Lovingly - Hattie
To Julia It was a great enterprise to bind two continents together with the lightning's track, to make a path for it along the ocean's bed, a "way for the lightning of the thunder" 'neath the deep sea - But 'twas greater far to bind earth and Heaven together, and let every man have a telegraph from his own soul to the heart of Jesus - It is your part, Julia, to make the connection. When the news came of the success of the one, cities were illuminated, but when it was announced from Calvary that the other was completed, the world was darkened, the Sun shaded his face at the words, "It is finished" This book contains a specimen of one, God's manifested love to a lost world is the other. Your may have a specimen of the last in your heart, which is the affectionate wish & prayer of John J. N. Granville, Oct 16th 1860
Julia - A simple request you made me, it was easy for one to say "Yes" then, but now that the time has come "in the which" I am to fulfill that promise, I scarce know what to write. Were the muse's powers mine, I would in merry rhyme or more sober blank verse inscribe upon this page my kindly feelings for you. But those powers to me God has not given. In less pleasing prose, then, I express the wish, that Heaven's choicest blessings may ever be thine. Kindly - Amelia.

		Another Riker Atlantic Cable Album, with a different embossing pattern and a two-color cover design

Last revised: 27 February, 2011

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